Afghans join International Prosecutors' Conference
A delegation led by Afghan Attorney General, Farid Hamidi, participated in the 21st Annual Conference of the International Association of Prosecutors in Dublin this month, with the support of IDLO.
Afghanistan emerged from Taliban rule in 2001 as an institutional wasteland. The justice deficit was acute, making the country a test case for law-based nation-building. Ever since, IDLO has been working with the Afghan government to drive judicial reform and foster the rule of law. And as Afghanistan takes charge of its own future, IDLO has been stepping up efforts to expand legal capacity and promote human rights. Advancing legal protection for women and combating gender violence have been among our priorities. IDLO has helped create an infrastructure of legal aid to victims, while supporting the prosecution of crimes against women and girls.
But Afghanistan remains a brittle post-conflict society. We have trained Afghan public defenders, empowered the poor to seek legal aid, and helped build legal resources in most of the country’s provinces. We have developed legal textbooks, reconstituted an entire pre-war body of lost law, and contributed to the establishment of a law library at the University of Kabul. Thousands of Afghan legal professionals – judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, MPs, civil servants and academics – are benefiting from this knowledge transfer.
Afghanistan has been an IDLO member party since November 2012.
A delegation led by Afghan Attorney General, Farid Hamidi, participated in the 21st Annual Conference of the International Association of Prosecutors in Dublin this month, with the support of IDLO.
The Upper House of the Afghan National Assembly has recognized the work of IDLO legal trainer and adviser Gul Ghutai Afzalyar with an award for her efforts to reform and clarify the Legislation for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (LEVAW) in Afghanistan.
Hossam Helal is an Egyptian judge, who has worked with IDLO in Afghanistan since 2005 in many roles, including Acting Chief of Party and Head of Training for JTTP.
After the brutal rape of a young woman in New Delhi in 2012, the issue of violence against women in India was thrust into the spotlight. The intensity of the national outcry in the aftermath led to the establishment of the Verna Committee, a governmental branch dedicated to addressing the issue of violence against women.
In a briefing at IDLO’s Headquarters in Rome, Member Parties heard from staff working in Afghanistan about the progress being made there in combatting violence against women. Field staff discusse
“International organizations in Afghanistan often try to reach their goals as if using a raft to cross a river.
I was facing a lot of problems …. my case was not addressed in court……I didn’t have the possibility of opening my own bank account ….. the money I was getting from sewing, knitting and cooking had to just be kept in the shelter’s office.
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"Experience shows that there can be no gender equality unless women can access justice and dispense justice," IDLO Director of External Relations Judit Arenas has said at the launch of the GQUAL campaign for gender parity in international bodies.